In the building industry, roof decking components, structural members, or substructures conventionally have insulation slabs or panels disposed thereon, and weather-protection membranes are in turn adapted to be secured atop the insulation slabs or panels so as to protect the same from deterioration which would otherwise occur as a result of being exposed to various environmental or weather conditions. The membranes and the underlying insulation slabs or panels are conventionally secured to the underlying roof decking substructures by means of fastener assemblies which may comprise, for example, a combination of roofing, seam, insulation, or membrane plates, batten strips, or batten bars, which are adapted to be disposed atop the membranes, whereupon, in turn, suitable threaded fasteners typically secure the plates, batten strips, or batten bars to the underlying roof decking substructures. Typical or conventional, PRIOR ART membrane, plate, and batten strip or batten bar mounting systems are disclosed, for example, within U.S. Pat. No. 6,250,034 which issued on Jun. 26, 2001 to Hulsey, U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,786 which issued on May 2, 2000 to Hubbard et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,004,645 which issued on Dec. 21, 1999 to Hubbard, U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,116 which issued on Jan. 27, 1998 to Hasan, U.S. Pat. No. 5,469,671 which issued on Nov. 28, 1995 to Rathgeber et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,699 which issued on Aug. 7, 1990 to Murphy.
With reference initially being made to FIG. 1, which corresponds substantially to FIG. 4 of the aforenoted United States patent to Hulsey, a conventional PRIOR ART roof decking assembly is disclosed and is generally indicated by the reference character 1. A metal roof decking substructure or component is disclosed at 12, and it is seen that the metal roof decking substructure 12 has a corrugated configuration comprising a plurality of transversely spaced crest portions 14 and a plurality of transversely spaced root portions 16 interposed between the crest portions 14. An insulation slab or panel 66 is disposed atop the metal roof decking substructure 12 and is adapted to be secured to the metal roof decking substructure 12 by means of a plurality of transversely spaced threaded fasteners which are adapted to be threadedly engaged within predetermined ones of the transversely spaced crest portions 14 of the metal roof decking substructure 12. Environmental-protection or weather-resistant membranes 54,62, are adapted to be disposed and secured atop the insulation slab or panel 66, and in view of the fact that the roof decking membranes are obviously smaller in size than the entire expanse of the roof decking assembly, the roof decking membranes 54,62 are adapted to be effectively mated together by means of a membrane fastening system 50 which comprises the welding or gluing together of the membranes 54,62 along seam lines 60, 70. Securement of the roof decking membranes 54,62 permits the membranes 54,62 to properly withstand environmental uplifting wind forces 74,78.
Continuing further, in accordance with conventional roof decking membrane fixation techniques, a seam plate or membrane plate 10 is adapted to be secured upon the upper surface portion of the insulation slab or panel 66, with a seam edge portion of one of the roof decking membranes 62 being interposed between the undersurface portion of the seam plate or membrane plate 10 and the upper surface portion of the insulation slab or panel 66, by means of a plurality of threaded fasteners 68, only one of which is disclosed, so as to effectively fix the roof decking membranes 54,62 to the underlying roof decking assembly comprising the metal roof decking substructure 12 and the insulation slab or panel 66. Various techniques may be employed in connection with the formation of the roof decking membrane seams 60,70 and the actual fixation of the roof decking membranes 54,62 to the underlying metal roof decking assembly 12,66, however, the critically important feature, characteristic of the operation or technique for fixing the roof decking membranes 54,62 to the underlying metal roof decking assembly 12,66, is to ensure that each seam plate or membrane plate 10 is precisely aligned with one of the crest portions 14 of the underlying metal roof decking substructure 12 so as to, in turn, ensure the fact that each one of the threaded fasteners 68 will be properly threadedly engaged within one of the crest portions 14 of the underlying metal roof decking substructure 12. Accordingly, various additional techniques have conventionally been implemented in connection with an attempt to precisely locate the seam plates or membrane plates with respect to the crest portions of the underlying metal roof decking substructure in order to ensure the fact that each one of the threaded fasteners, used for securing the seam plates or membranes upon the underlying membranes, will be properly threadedly engaged within one of the crest portions of the underlying metal roof decking substructure. One such technique comprises the placement of suitable markings upon the membranes, at predetermined positions spaced along the membranes, such that when the membranes are disposed atop the insulation slab or panel in such a manner that the markings are positionally aligned with the crest portions of the underlying metal roof decking substructure, the markings will effectively indicate to installation personnel the locations at which the membrane plates or seam plates are to be placed and secured as a result of the threaded fasteners being threadedly engaged within the crest portions of the underlying metal roof decking substructure.
In addition to the fact that the placement of the membrane plates or seam plates at the individually marked locations is time-consuming, operational problems have also been experienced in connection with such techniques. For example, in connection with this particular installation technique, it has been experienced sometimes that, during the time that occurs between the placement of the membranes atop the insulation slab or panel and the time that the seam plates or membrane plates are placed upon the membranes, the membranes may have moved, such as, for example, under environmental conditions. Alternatively, due to the multitude of workmen present upon the job site, the seam plates or membrane plates may have been inadvertently moved. In either instance, it is sometimes the case that the seam plates or membrane plates are not in fact properly aligned with the crest portions of the underlying metal roof decking substructure whereby the threaded fasteners will not be properly engaged within the crest portions of the underlying metal roof decking substructure. Accordingly, the seam plates or membrane plates will not be securely fastened to the underlying metal roof decking substructure so as to in turn not be capable of properly maintaining the environmental membranes fixed upon the insulation slab or panel under the various environmental conditions.
Alternatively, if it is realized that a particular fastener has not in fact been properly threadedly engaged within the crest portion of the underlying metal roof decking substructure, the threaded fastener must be removed and reinserted at a different location. This operation is obviously additionally time-consuming, however, still further, additional holes have now been formed within the environmental membranes which could lead to enhanced deterioration of the membranes as well as the underlying insulation slabs or panels. Lastly, when roof decking assemblies, comprising, for example, non-corrugated concrete or wood roof decking substructures, insulation slabs or panels, and environmental membranes, are to be assembled, it is likewise critically important to secure the environmental membranes at predeterminedly spaced locations with respect to the underlying insulation slabs or panels, and the concrete or wood roof decking substructures, so as to ensure the secure fixation of the environmental membranes upon the underlying insulation slabs or panels, and the concrete or wood roof decking substructures, despite the presence of uplifting environmental wind forces.
As disclosed, for example, within U.S. Pat. No. 5,918,439 which issued to Metzer et al. on Jul. 6, 1999, U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,747 which issued to Poorman on Mar. 10, 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 5,230,158 which issued to Wall on Jul. 27, 1993, U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,234 which issued to Han on Oct. 15, 1991, U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,325 which issued to Sweatman on Jul. 14, 1987, U.S. Pat. No. 4,301,596 which issued to Sedlock on Nov. 24, 1981, U.S. Pat. No. 4,149,320 which issued to Troyer et al. on Apr. 17, 1979, U.S. patent application Publication 2001/0034954 of Medford et al. which was published on Nov. 1, 2001, and PCT Patent Application WO 96/30609 of Hungarter which was published on Oct. 3, 1996, various measuring or aligning devices, implements, or tools are also known for use in connection with the installation of roofing shingles, roof framing members, stud members, and the like. None of these devices, tools, or implements, however, would be useable in a viable manner, in connection with the aforenoted installation of seam plates or membrane plates, in order to overcome the various operational disadvantages or drawbacks characteristic of conventional techniques for installing seam plates or membrane plates upon the roof decking assemblies, wherein it is desired to ensure the fact that the seam plates or membrane plates would be properly positioned with respect to the underlying environmental membranes such that when the threaded fasteners, for securing the seam plates or membrane plates upon the underlying roof decking substructure, are to be threadedly engaged within the underlying roof decking substructure, the threaded fasteners will in fact be threadedly engaged either within the crest portions of the underlying metal roof decking substructure, or at predeterminedly spaced locations with respect to underlying concrete or wood decking substructures, in order to ensure the secure fixation of the environmental membranes upon the underlying insulation slabs or panels, and the metal, concrete, or wood roof decking substructures, despite the presence of uplifting environmental wind forces.
A need therefore exists in the art for a new and improved device or implement which will be capable of readily, easily, and rapidly positioning or aligning seam plates or membrane plates with respect to underlying roof decking substructures such that when the threaded fasteners, for securing the seam plates or membrane plates to underlying roof decking substructures, are to be threadedly engaged within underlying corrugated metal roof decking substructures, the threaded fasteners will in fact be threadedly engaged within the crest portions of the underlying corrugated metal roof decking substructures, or alternatively, when the threaded fasteners are to be threadedly engaged within underlying non-corrugated concrete or wood roof decking substructures, the threaded fasteners will in fact be threadedly engaged within the underlying non-corrugated concrete or wood roof decking substructures at predeterminedly spaced locations in order to ensure the secure fixation of the environmental membranes upon the underlying insulation slabs or panels, and the metal, concrete, or wood roof decking substructures, despite the presence of uplifting environmental wind forces.